God's Strength

It was a beautiful cool fall morning so I went for a run and as I was rounding the corner into the subdivision, I could hear jingling next to me through my headphones blaring praise and worship music.  I turned to see my dog following me on my run.  Historically she can’t do much more than 3 miles; most of the time, even that is a struggle and I was set out for 4. She is slightly out of shape.  As we ran, she struggled a bit and would roll around in a ditch to cool off.  Unfortunately there wasn’t much moisture for her other than the morning dew.  At about 3 ½ miles I could tell she couldn’t take much more without a break and some water. So I veered off to head toward the pond.  As we headed down the small path, she kept stopping along the way to lay in the muddy ditch.  There in the weeds and muck she seemed happy.  I kept calling to her though as the huge, beautiful pond was only 10 steps away.  She got out and almost made it to the pond before veering off for comfort and missing the bigger picture.  She laid down again in the muck and tall grass with big weeds blocking her view from the paradise just beyond.  I just couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t take the next 3 steps to the clean, beautiful refreshment of the big pond.  It is there I felt God.  I took my phone out to take a picture of this.

How often do we lose sight of the forest for the trees when we are in a struggle (whether financially, spiritually, health, loved ones, work)?  We are weighted down by the troubles of this world and our burden becomes too much to bear; we cannot take another step on our own we give up.  We can barely call out, “This is good God, that’s all the strength I have, I can’t keep going.  This mud and muck is enough.” We are happy with what we can see with our very human sight, not knowing that if we fully trusted God, there is so much more that lays ahead.  How often in life when obstacles get in our way do we lay down in our weakness and try to be content in staying there without seeking  God’s will or God’s strength to get us to that next place He has called.  Like Bella and like the Israelites I think we know of God’s promises, but we easily forget his faithfulness when we cannot see beyond our current circumstances. The weeds to Bella were like the giants in the Promised Land to the Israelites.  It was hard for her to see beyond them to the greatness that was just beyond.  She was too tired to care, too tired to move one step further; she was out of her own strength.   Thankfully, God promises over and over, verse after verse in the bible that not in our Strength but in His.  He has so much more for us.  Isaiah 40:31 states, “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary.”  God never asks us to keep going in our strength. That old saying, “The Lord will never give your more than you can handle,” bothers me.  Where is that found in the Bible? God will give us more than we can handle or we may never seek him. Sometimes it’s exactly what He has to use to change and shift our stubborn hearts.  He promises His strength, we need only ask and believe.   Realize that we are totally and completely dependent on his strength.  The revelations were straight from God this morning, just what I needed to hear.  Maybe what some of you need to hear as well?  When he leads us on a journey, even when it gets hard, he will renew our strength to see it through.  His power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).  God never promises that we will not have trouble in this life.  In fact Jesus states in John 26:33 “In the world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.”

When he calls us, we need to act obediently, trusting that what he has in store for us in better than what we could have ever imagined.  “For my plans are not your plans declare the Lord, neither are your ways my ways.” (Isaiah 55:8) Life will throw us curve balls, beautiful endings can start with horrible beginnings, things God calls us to, can seem nearly if not completely impossible.  But that is the absolutely amazing thing about God and his promises.  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).  I just hated to see Bella struggling and overheating when relief was steps away, much like I would believe God would hate to see his children suffering and settling for much less than he had planned for them.  For most of the time His plans are not only to bring us closer to Him, but also those around us can learn much from our journey and those we will meet in the future.  God is glorified in our journey when we let him strengthen us.  Our stories of His strength overcoming our obstacles are treasures to be shared with others, not only to remind ourselves of the times God was faithful in the past but to help others through their journeys as well.